In a message dated 5/17/2004 5:20:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Thanks in advance,
Eric,

For nothing, in my case.  I know even less about this than I do about mortars
(but don't tell Ruth).

In that regard, I have learned that the little portable mortars used in WWII
and subsequently are called trench mortars, and that the big monster ones in
the olden days were called siege mortars.  What makes it a mortar is the large
ratio of barrel diameter to barrel length, and the fact that mortars point up
toward the sky.  See what you can learn from the dictionary? And from watching
the Hitlery Channel on the right night?

Ralph